About

The farmingfriends website was set up at the end of 2006 and started as a diary of daily life on the farm but has grown into an online magazine and forum community packed with information, resources and products relating to farming, keeping livestock, food and nature. If you are a farmer, smallholder, animal enthusiast, parent, child or anyone interested in animals and the farming lifestyle, then the Farming Friends website and forum is for you.

Menu

Questions Regarding Silkie Chicks & Hens

I have been asked some questions relating to silkie chicks and hens. I don’t have silkie hens myself although a friend has some and they hatched some of my guinea fowl eggs and looked after the keets brilliantly so I know they make great mums!

Dear friends,
Hope you are doing good with your pets 🙂

I want to raise a pair of silky chicks. So please share your precious knowledge with me about silkies. Adult Silkies are very expensive so i’ve decided to raise chicks.
My few questions are:

Once they are adult will they hatch their own eggs or will I have to buy an incubator?

If they will hatch their own eggs will I still have to keep the new born chicks in a brooder?

Can silky chicks be identified as male and female?

At what age silkies will not be attacked by cats?

When is good weather to start raising chicks? Currently it’s very cold in Pakistan. Should I wait for summer?

regards,
Ahmed

Here is my response to Ahmed:

Hi Ahmed,
Silkies are said to be good at going broody and incubating their own eggs. I don’t have silkie hens myself although a friend has some and they hatched some of my guinea fowl eggs and looked after the keets brilliantly so I know they make great mums!

If they hatch their own eggs then they should look after their chicks. You would only need to make yourself a brooder if the chicks were not accepted by the mother hen or were not well.
I am not sure about gender identification in silkie chicks, I will do some research into this. (Dear readers, if you know about this then please let us know.)
Silkies would need to be adult size before cats are not likely to be a threat.
I would start to raise the chicks in Spring/Summer just like we do here in the UK.

Let us know how you get on.
Kind regards
Sara @ farmingfriends

Do you have experience of keeping Silkies and raising silkies from chicks? If so then we would love to hear your comments.

If you keep hens or are interested in keeping hens then visit the farmingfriends hen forum for the latest chat about hens and then check out the books shown below about keeping hens which are informative and excellent for the beginner and a handy reference for the more experienced hens keeper.